On 31 July 2015, Israeli settlers firebombed a Palestinian family home in the village of Duma, killing three people; 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in the fire, while both his parents died from their injuries within weeks. On 3 January 2016, 21 year old Israeli settler Amiram Ben-Uliel was indicted for the murder, along with an Israeli minor, for participation in planning the murder. In addition, along with two others, they were both charged with one count of membership in a terrorist organization.
In 2020, Ben-Uliel was convicted of three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of arson and of conspiring to commit a racially motivated crime,Gideon Levy, 'What an Exceptional Verdict in Palestinian Family's Murder Proves About Israel's Judiciary ,' Haaretz 19 May 2020. as part of a "terrorist act".הפיגוע בדומא: בן אוליאל הורשע ברצח שלושת בני משפחת דוואבשה , on Walla!, 18 May 2018 However, he was acquitted of the charge of being a member of a terror organization. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Arson attack
It emerged in investigations that the attack had apparently been planned in a cave called the "Red House" built from a previously existing Palestinian structure, on a site that was then turned into an Israeli outpost called Yishuv HaDaat. According to Rabbis for Human Rights, the state still plans to legalize this same outpost, though it was stolen through threats and violence from its Palestinian owners.'State seeks legalization of outpost where Duma murder was reportedly planned,' Rabbis for Human Rights 3 January 2016.
On 31 July 2015, two family homes in Duma, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, were firebombed by masked attackers. According to all reports, the first house was empty and they then went to a second house, where 18-month-old Ali Sa'ad Dawabsheh was burnt to death; his parents and 4-year-old brother were critically injured and rushed to Israeli hospitals, the father died of his burns several days later. Five weeks later, the mother, Reham Dawabsheh, died of her injuries.
According to local accounts, the family had returned home from a visit with relatives at around 1:30 AM, and sometime after they went to bed, between 2:00 and 4:00 AM,Noga Tarnopolsky, 'Attack in West Bank Kills Palestinian Child,' The Wall Street Journal, 31 July 2015. two masked assailants smashed windows and threw Molotov cocktails into the sleeping quarters. The IDF stated that windows had been smashed before the firebombs were lobbed in. Another report states that the house itself was doused and set alight.'Palestinian infant killed in apparent Jewish terror attack,' The Times of Israel, 31 July 2015. Neighbors stated that both parents emerged from their home enveloped in flames, and that two masked men were observed fleeing the scene. The newspaper Haaretz, however, reported that the torched houses were in the middle of the town, such that it would not have been easy for outside intruders to "make a getaway."
The family's neighbor Ibrahim Dawabsheh, a construction worker in the Shilo settlement, reported that he heard his neighbours' screams, and on running to the site, saw two men standing over Reham and Saad's burning bodies. They followed him when he retreated, until he was joined by his brother. The mother, Riham (27), herself engulfed by flames, according to her brother-in-law, grabbed a blanket in which she thought her youngest child was sleeping, and fled outside only to realize the child was not in the blanket. She had third degree burns over 90% of her body, and died on 6 September 2015.Ido Efrati, Associated Press, 'Ali Dawabshe's Mother Succumbs to Wounds Sustained in West Bank Arson,' Haaretz, 7 September 2016. According to one report, the father, Sa'ad, managed to carry their son Ahmed, age 4, outside, while sustaining burns over 80% of his body. Another version reported that Ahmad was rescued by their neighbor, Ibrahim Dawabsheh. After undergoing treatment at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, Sa'ad Dawabsheh died of his wounds on 8 August.
Ahmad, who survived, suffered serious burns over 60% of his body.'Israeli settlers kill Palestinian toddler in arson attack,' Ma'an News Agency 31 July 2015Chaim Levinson, 'Police Seek Public's Help in Murder of Duma Toddler,' Haaretz, 4 August 2015.
Victims 'Ali Sa'ed Muhammad Dawabsheh, age 1, burnt to death when home was torched, 31 July. Sa'ed Muhammad Hassan Dawabsheh, age 32, fatally wounded when home was torched, succumbing to third-degree burns over 80% of his body, on 8 August.The Ma'an source cited gives Mr. Dawabsheh's age as 30 years. Riham Hussein Hassan Dawabsheh, age 27, fatally wounded when home was torched, dying on 7 September.
Investigation From the first day, the Israeli authorities imposed a press embargo on the subject, banning the media from publishing any details or developments related to the investigation. On 31 August 2015, the embargo was extended by a month."Israel extends media blackout on deadly arson attack developments" . The Middle East Monitor, 1 September 2015
The Israeli investigators and international observers immediately suspected Jewish extremists of committing the attack.Diaa Hadid and Jodi Rudoren, 'Jewish Arsonists Suspected in West Bank Attack That Killed Palestinian Toddler,' The New York Times 31 July 2015.Mohammed Daraghmeh, Tia Goldenberg,'Jewish Attack on Palestinian Home Kills Toddler,' Associated Press 31 July 2015. Several young men alleged to have been instigators were not native-born Israelis but came from American immigrant families.Sara Hirschhorn,'Israeli Terrorists, Born in the U.S.A.,' , The New York Times, 4 September 2015:'All available evidence suggests that the blaze was a deliberate act of settler terrorism.' A manual of incitement written by Moshe Orbach, an Israeli from Bnai Brak, entitled "Kingdom of Evil," which provides details on how to set fire to mosques, churches and Palestinian homes, has also been mentioned in connection with the Duma attack.Jamal Kanj 'Analysis: Burned alive by Israelis,' Ma'an News Agency 13 September 2015. In February 2016 Orbach was convicted of sedition, the first time an Israeli court has found someone guilty of that charge in the last decade.Israeli court convicts radical right-wing activist of sedition Times of Israel, 19 February 2016
Israeli police initially suspected that the arson was a price tag attack by "extremist Israeli settlers"; some speculated that it might have been undertaken in retaliation for the demolition by the IDF of Jewish settlement structures in Beit El, 'the flagship of the ideological settler movement,' some time earlier.
In the Hebrew graffiti, the usual signature of "price tag" () is lacking, and in its stead the slogans "Revenge," and "Long live King Messiah," () were scrawled. The latter is the religious slogan of the Meshichist wing of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. In addition, a resident told a reporter that he saw attackers fleeing towards the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Efrayim. Police requested information from the public as they sought to identify the arsonists.
When suspicion fell on West Bank Jewish extremists, Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America alleged that Jews were being "falsely accused" of carrying out the attack, and he instead accused it as being the work of other Palestinians, as part of "an 18-year-old feud between Arab clans" in the village.Lahav Harkov, 'ZOA slams those who 'rush to blame Jews' for Duma attack,' The Jerusalem Post, 6 August 2015. Israeli Knesset member Oren Hazan, referencing a later separate fire at the house of a brother of Saad Dawabsheh that the Israeli and Palestinian authorities have reported to be unrelated to the arson attack, called for an investigation as he believed that the second fire may indicate that the arson was not committed by Israeli extremists.
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu claimed on 30 August 2015 on Ynet that "The way of terror is not our [Jews] way". Later, he claimed; "only someone who lacks knowledge in the nuances of the religious community would make such a mistake and assume that "Tag Mechir" activists will write "Yechi Hamelech Hamashiach" ("Long live King Messiah").
On 8 September 2015, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer told the media, that Israel "know[s] unequivocally that this is an act of Jewish terror.", 8 September 2015, JTA On 9 September 2015, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon issued a statement that said "there is a high probability that those responsible for the attack in Duma are part of a very extreme group of Jews" but that there is not yet enough evidence to arrest any suspects. Ya'alon also told a group of Likud activists that the identities of the arsonists are known to the defense establishment but that charges would not yet be brought to protect the identity of their sources. Later, Ya'alon clarified that security forces have only a "general idea" of who is responsible for the deadly firebombing attack... calling on reporters to take a wait and see approach to the case". Ya'alon said the attack hurt the state of Israel and the settlement movement specifically. According to Sara Hirschhorn, settler rabbis and the leaders of American immigrant communities in the West Bank have been muted in their responses to the detention of suspects associated with their communities.
On 3 December 2015, it was cleared for publication that a number of Jewish suspects had been arrested in connection with the attack. The UN envoy criticized the "slow progress" in Israel's investigation.
Haaretz reported that the suspects were subjected to harsh interrogation methods after the investigation hit a dead end. According to unnamed sources, Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein approved the use of these methods, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not informed of this until after the fact. In response to the allegations, Deputy Attorney-General Raz Nizri met with the detainees.
On 11 December 2015, one of the suspects was released to house arrest.
Despite acknowledging that the attack was "clearly a Jewish" one, and that Israeli authorities knew "who is responsible" for it, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that there is "not enough evidence" to detain or prosecute the suspects. The comments were decried by Palestinian rights groups, who noticed the swiftness of Israeli military actions against Palestinian suspects of attacks against Israeli targets, and accused the Israeli government of condoning settler violence.
On 15 December, the Israeli High Court of Justice denied a petition that the government take immediate "legal steps against the Dawabsheh family's murders".
On the evening of the 17'th of December 2015, Mako reported about a petition to leak the names of arrested people, within a few hours. "We are all with Zionist detainees" ("כולנו עם עצורי ציון"), in other sources "Duma Youth" ("נערי דומא"), leaked 100 names of people that had been allegedly held by security services giving three categories (administrative detention, custody and under active integration by the Shabak). Rotter News reported that the list is not credible as they believe the names are not connected to the investigation.
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